I've received my Kindle! I ordered the basic, generic Kindle ($79 w/ads), and I love it. It has inspired me to read more. I've already improvised a booklight for it, considering it does not have a backlight on it. It states it has about 1 1/4gb of usable memory once you add the dictionary onto it. Charging is fast, on about a half-charge it takes not even thirty minutes to hit full charge.
Despite how the reviews speak on Amazon.com, the newspapers you can buy or subscribe to are good. They aren't the greatest in the world, compared to the real thing, but hey - it at least has pictures and a nav menu.
Books, I find them to be overpriced. Most, if you'll look, are more than the paperback book. Their read quality is dependent on how well the publisher converted the formats. I've come across some doozie samples, but most are good quality. (That is something I need to make clear about Kindle books -
DOWNLOAD THE SAMPLE FIRST, and with Kindle newspapers -
DON'T IMMEDIATELY SUBSCRIBE, BUY THE CURRENT ISSUE.
Kindle's platform is a modified Java framework; therefore, you should be prepared for a few freeze ups or slow downs, but all-in-all, it is pretty fast.
Whispernet - very fast. If you have the Kindle in a Wi-Fi area (and for the models that have 3G), you'll get it within around 10 to 20 seconds, and that is slow. I get mine immediately.
Finally, I do have to say the unit is really light, somewhat around a regular (small) paperback. It has five controls, the back, keyboard, 5-Way D-Pad, menu, and home buttons. Very easy to use (with the on-screen keyboard being the exception to this). Charging is simple - put the Kindle in screensaver mode and hook it up. To continue reading or browsing while charging, you must "eject" the Kindle from the computer. No, you don't unplug it, you go to the USB controls and eject the "AMAZON KINDLE." You have an option to set a password, but I advise making it simple unless you have all day to enter it on the God-awful on-screen keyboard. If you have .PDF or .DOCX/.DOC files, you can email them to the Kindle - but be sure it is in your "Approved Senders" list on Amazon (your email used for Amazon will work fine, since it will permanently be in the senders list.
Unrelated: Book/Paper Recommendations
So far, I've come across about twenty sample books I didn't care for, or were poorly transferred to the Kindle format. I have a few I like, and I'd like to share.
- Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy SEAL - by Chuck Pfarrer
- SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper - by Stephen Templin and Howard E. Wasdin
- USA Today
